New U.S. data show how heavily the Bush administration has relied on corporations to carry out the occupation of the war-torn nation.

This group is now becoming known as the "COALITION OF THE BILLING!"

Continuing uncertainty over the numbers of armed contractors drew special criticism from military experts.

"We don't have control of all the coalition guns in Iraq. That's dangerous for our country," said William Nash, a retired Army general and reconstruction expert. The Pentagon "is hiring guns. You can rationalize it all you want, but that's obscene."

Quote:

The number of U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops, newly released figures show, raising fresh questions about the privatization of the war effort and the government's capacity to carry out military and rebuilding campaigns.

More than 180,000 civilians — including Americans, foreigners and Iraqis — are working in Iraq under U.S. contracts, according to State and Defense department figures obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Including the recent troop buildup, 160,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilian government employees are stationed in Iraq.

The total number of private contractors, far higher than previously reported, shows how heavily the Bush administration has relied on corporations to carry out the occupation of Iraq — a mission criticized as being undermanned.

"These numbers are big," said Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar who has written on military contracting. "They illustrate better than anything that we went in without enough troops. This is not the coalition of the willing. It's the coalition of the billing."

The numbers include at least 21,000 Americans, 43,000 foreign contractors and about 118,000 Iraqis — all employed in Iraq by U.S. tax dollars, according to the most recent government data.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

In the hypothetical case that Bush withdraw the military troops from Iraq, what would happen with these private military contractors? These 180000 are more than enough to keep the war going.

_________________It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning. - Henry Ford

I watched 'No End in Sight' at the New York film forum yesterday. Though it did not address the illegality of the Iraq War, it was nevertheless a really good documentary. It addresses this very matter.

My girlfriend was so upset as well as most people that we encountered after the movie. I was not. It just confirmed everything I knew about this war- it was never intended to be won. It was all about war profiting.

And that's why it'll never really end...unless some of the extreme religious zealots get their hands on real weapons of mass destruction and try to wipe out the other extreme religious zealots, saying to hell with the collateral damage in between. Then, it won't make any difference....nobody'll win..

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

And that's why it'll never really end...unless some of the extreme religious zealots get their hands on real weapons of mass destruction and try to wipe out the other extreme religious zealots, saying to hell with the collateral damage in between. Then, it won't make any difference....nobody'll win..

Interesting position we are in.

Those who desire to Control the world and are willing to destroy much of it in the process because the little people don't count. (The real leader's who are behind nearly all the worlds puppet governments)

Those who desire the destruction of much of the world because they falsely believe that through this their savior will come. (And whoever it is, is going to kick their stupid asses I hope.)

Those who have had enough of the suffering that has been brought about by the above two groups and are willing to destroy much of the world in order to remove the above two groups.

Have I missed any?

_________________CrimsonEagleThe war to end all wars can only be fought on the front-lines of the mind.

The greatest deception they have perpetrated is that we need them. Our greatest mistake is that we believe them.

Many of the contractors are paid mercenaries with outfits like Blackwater, while others do the sort of things that soldiers used to do -- such as cook.

I do not like the use of mercenaries in the least, or this outsourcing. Our government has been over -billed by companies like Haliburton, and the contractors are immune from prosecution. We have even seen cases of contractors and U.S. troops firing on each other.

“I think it’s extraordinarily dangerous when a nation begins to outsource its monopoly on the use of force and the use of violence in support of its foreign policy or national security objectives,” says veteran U.S . Diplomat Joe Wilson, who served as the last U.S. ambassador to Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War.

With almost no congressional oversight and even less public awareness, the Bush administration has more than doubled the size of the U.S. occupation through the use of private war companies.

There are now almost 200,000 private “contractors” deployed in Iraq by Washington. This means that U.S. military forces in Iraq are now outsized by a coalition of billing corporations whose actions go largely unmonitored and whose crimes are virtually unpunished.

In essence, the Bush administration has created a shadow army that can be used to wage wars unpopular with the American public but extremely profitable for a few unaccountable private companies.

Since the launch of the “global war on terror,” the administration has systematically funneled billions of dollars in public money to corporations like Blackwater USA , DynCorp, Triple Canopy, Erinys and ArmorGroup. They have in turn used their lucrative government pay-outs to build up the infrastructure and reach of private armies so powerful that they rival or outgun some nation’s militaries.